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Ordinary People Film Analysis

Decent Essays

In the film, Ordinary People, Calvin Jarrett is the husband of Beth Jarrett and the father of Buck and Conrad Jarrett. He has been experiencing a very difficult time in his life. Recently, his son Buck died in a boating accident and Conrad attempted to commit suicide, but did not succeed because he found him in time to save him. Losing one son and almost losing his other son was a painful experience for Calvin. Through the film, we see his feelings about his children as well his caring and honest nature. We also see him escape his wife's controlling nature and standing up to her. Calvin Jarrett fits into stage eight of Erikson’s schema. I believe he fits into this stage because he has been through many tough times in his life with integrity. …show more content…

He became strong and created a stronger bond with Conrad because of it. He also was able to see the truth about his wife because of he is in the stage of mature age. He was able to tell her that he doesn’t know if he loves her anymore. When they were younger and in the stages five and six of Erikson’s schema he only saw her beauty and charm. In stage eight, he was able to see past the beauty and charm and see the real, controlling, self-centered women she was. Beth wanted her way and wanted to control everything that everyone did. Being that Calvin was in the mature age stage, he was able to have integrity and tell his wife that he no longer loves her. This shows that Calvin is in the mature age stage because he was able to face his demons and tell her how he felt. He tells her that she is …show more content…

I believe this because in this stage he lost Buck to a tragic accident, almost lost Conrad to suicide and lost the wife he used to know who was charming and loveable. Losing Buck and almost losing Conrad had a big effect on Calvin and caused him emotional pain. As if losing one son weren’t hard enough, he almost lost his other son. When Buck died, he says that Beth buried the best of herself, which was her charm, compassion and love. He lost the wife he used to know and his eyes were opened to her controlling and unlovable nature. This stage was very problematic and helped Calvin mature into stage eight which is mature adulthood. Stage 7 is described as generativity vs. self-absorption, which is what I believed caused problems in this stage. This generativity vs. self-absorption was not just with him, I believe this crises occurred between him and Beth. Calvin was practicing generativity which means caring for and nurturing younger people, in his cause would be Conrad. On the other hand, Beth was practicing self-absorption because she wanted everything to be her way. This caused for problems because him and his wife were practicing two different natures which caused conflict in their family

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